Website search function increases conversion
Posted on Jun 01, 2012 by equimedia
Businesses may be unaware that their website usability is affecting conversion rates.
With so much hype surrounding the need to get online and have a presence on social media, firms run the risk of rushing and developing a site that doesn't do its job.
When most firms think of visitors to their website, they often think about the importance of SEO, paid searches and search engines, but little thought is given to how to convert those visits to sales, claimed Ed Hoffman, vice president of global sales and business development at SLI Systems.
Speaking at the eCommerce Expo Manchester he said that a poorly functioning search tool can put visitors off and send them away from the site.
"What are people going to do when they get to your site? A lot of time they'll search," he explained as most people are very familiar with this tool through Google and Facebook.
"If you can find something across the whole web using Google, why can't you find a particular product that your couple-of-thousand-page site has?" he asked.
According to figures from Marketing Sherpa and the Nielsen Group in separate studies, around 40 per cent of people will perform a search for something as their first action when encountering a large website.
"Another interesting element to this is that people who do turn to that search box are far more likely to purchase," Mr Hoffman said.
However, he claimed it is not the searching that leads to purchase but rather that people come to the site knowing what they want and will buy it if they can, rather than those who browse.
If a customer cannot find it, he will not buy it from that site, he'll look elsewhere for an easier purchase.
In this way, a good search function is absolutely vital to increase conversion.
